One Month Into School

I had a doctor's appointment last week. The baby is still measuring a couple of weeks ahead of schedule so he might come early. My diabetes seems to be responding well to my diet but they will still monitor the baby closely, especially when he is born. His heartbeat was strong and I feel him move all the time now. He has steered clear of my rib-cage (he hasn't kicked me there yet), but sometimes I feel his head right at the top of my left thigh joint. When he gets an elbow or foot in just the right place it hurts. He is big enough that my stomach moves when he does and I have to admit it is fun to watch. He lets me know when I have disturbed his comfort because of the position I am in and sadly part of his comfort is settling right on my bladder. I have been achy this week and a little grumpy and emotional. More than anything I feel tired and huge (I haven't gained any weight this month :) and don't know how my body can stretch anymore than it already has.

School is...well...school. We are both in the swing of the semester and plugging along. Work is also going well and provides a nice escape into reality (law school is close to insanity most of the time), even though I'm editing Supreme Court cases :) Robert likes his job as a Lexis student rep.

If only I could have some ice cream, the real stuff with hot fudge and caramel, life would be awesome. (Grandma will have to eat enough for grandpa and me; he can't have any either.)

Sunday

We went to our new ward today. We went last week after checking the church website. We went to Sacrament Meeting and asked where Sunday School was. This stake does RS and SS before SM so we had missed the other meetings. Today we made it to all of them. We have 9:00 church. I usually like early church but it was difficult to get up today. Our new ward was very welcoming and I am glad that we are where we are.

Robert and I had some friends up at the cabin yesterday. It was a lot of fun. We ate, watched the game (go Cougars), played the Wii, and played board games. It's great to get out of Provo for a few hours and unwind with friends. Most of us are all in law school so it's great to out of the pressure situation. We have a solid group that does "geek nights" and we always have fun together.

The baby is moving regularly and when he moves my belly usually follows. Sleeping is getting more elusive so Sunday naps are a life saver. Work is going well. I like my job a lot and many days I prefer work to school (I think getting paid to be there helps).

Blood Sugar Update

I had an appointment with the diabetic nutritionist on Monday. My blood sugar levels were pretty low for the week so they are encouraged as it seems that the diet is controlling the diabetes. If this continues I will not need insulin and the diabetes should go away after the baby is born. I don't have another appointment for a few weeks, but they want me to call in this week for a phone appointment. When I arrived they were running behind so I had an opportunity to talk to some other gestational diabetes patients. Their levels were all pretty high and they were worried. I have the opposite problem, mine are sometimes too low.

Blood sugar needs to be 70 or above to be healthy; anything below that is considered hypoglycemic which brings its own risks (one of them being death). At least once a day I have slipped into the 60's and even the 50's. The nurses could not figure out why I was dipping so low and questioned me about what and when I ate. I always dipped that low before lunch or before dinner. They said it sounded like I was following the diet to a "T" and made some adjustments because of the lows and the fact that I was spilling ketones into my urine. The adjustments worked for a day or two then my blood sugar started dropping into the 50's again. I have to call in tomorrow and see what is going on. My blood sugar has never been close to the upper threshold, even the time I cheated and ate a cupcake (insert guilty face emoticon here).

Last night was really scary. They no longer have me test my blood sugar before lunch and before dinner because my levels were always so low that they weren't worried about them. I tested before dinner last night because I felt my blood sugar might have been high. Wrong. It was at 48. When blood sugar plummets to the 50's the brain is not getting the sugar it needs to function properly. When you reach these levels you are supposed to eat sugar to bring your level up to safety, then, to sustain it, you're supposed to eat a meal. I ate some chocolate cake that a member of the ward had brought as a welcoming treat, a hard candy, a glass of milk, and half a soda and tested again in 15 minutes. My blood sugar had increased to 69. I then ate dinner and tested two hours later (this is the norm). My blood sugar was 92; after eating all of that it was only 92 (120 is the upper threshold for two hours after a meal). This has left me wondering if I really do have GD. The nurses told me at my appointment that I might have had hypoglycemia before the pregnancy and that untreated hypoglycemia can turn into Type II diabetes. We'll see how the phone appointment goes this week.

Heather Luedtke Chapman

My cousin Heather passed away a week ago. She was an amazing woman, wife, mother, sister, and daughter. She lost her battle with breast cancer at the age of 32. She has a husband and two children. One of my earliest memories of Heather (other then swimming in uncle Fred and aunt Coy's pool) is singing the "Elvira" song ("my heart is on fire for Elvira") in the old van they used to have. Heather loved the song and kept rewinding it to sing it; uncle Fred was driving and I was in the car. I don't remember what we were doing other than driving and singing the song. I also remember playing barbies and kitchen with her and Cherise. Her funeral was in California and I wish I could have been there. I had school and work and being almost 30 weeks pregnant with gestational diabetes (that has a tendency to dip into hypoglycemia) I could not travel. My mom said it was the best funeral she's even been to and that it was a real tribute to Heather and the Savior. I know Heather will be missed. Not that anyone ever deserves cancer, but Heather is someone who really didn't deserve it. She brought joy and happiness everywhere she went.

A Day of Firsts

Robert and I had our last first day of school. I only had tax today so off I went for my first diabetic appointment. The meeting was three hours and I have a very specific diet plan. They said that half of the women who follow the plan are able to regulate their diabetes, the other half require medication even if they follow the plan. Since I discovered that my insurance will not cover any diabetic medication I'm hoping that diet will control it. If I do need to go on medication then I would be considered a high risk pregnancy and they would take the baby at 36 or 37 weeks. One other woman in there had GD with her last pregnancy and they took her baby at 37 weeks. They said that if most people would follow the diet plan many of them would not develop type II diabetes at all. They said the number of children and teenagers that come into the clinic is skyrocketing.

I have to test my blood sugar four times a day until I deliver and they will monitor it closely to see if my diet controls the diabetes. Also, I have to test my urine daily. This really is going to be a pain and I hope I don't have this with any subsequent pregnancies. I have to eat every 2 hours while I'm awake, that's 6 meals a day. It will by difficult to do while at school because I will have to prepare three of my meals before I leave and keep them fresh etc. I also have to eat right before I go to bed, I don't really like doing that and before I was pregnant I skipped breakfast which is a huge cardinal sin with diabetes.

I know people think this is a great adventure but I hate adventures. I like the boring, predictable life with few surprises.

More Doctors for Me

I had the 3 hour glucose test yesterday bright and early (8:30 am). I had to go completely fasting and drink a higher concentration of sugar water. The nurse told me that if I felt sick she had a cold dark room I could go and lay down in. I thought I was fine until 30 minutes had passed and I had a pounding headache and felt sick to my stomach (Hello 1st trimester is over). I finally asked if I could go back into the room. I spent the rest of the test trying not to be sick. They take your blood sugar four times, one at the beginning of the test and then three more every hour for three hours. If two of the three glucose levels come back over the limit during the test then you have gestational diabetes. I failed one big time, one was right on the threshold, and one was one point over. The nurse wasn't sure that the doctor would refer me to the diabetic clinic because I was technically on the threshold. The doctor called me and he did refer me so while Robert and I move today, I have to keep an ear out for my phone so I can talk to the specialist and the diabetic clinic.

I'm mostly scared for the baby. I don't want him to be hurt by this, I feel like I've failed him. The doctor and nurse told me that the cause of GD is unknown and that you can have it with one pregnancy and not others - there's no rhyme or reason to it. Still, this is just one more thing to deal with on top of Law School and the pregnancy itself and one more risk to the baby. I also don't want to actually get diabetes. Having GD makes it more likely that you'll get real diabetes later in life. On that cheerful note I get to go move now.

I FAILED a TEST

Seriously bummed. I had my gestational diabetes test today. I failed by two points. Now I have to go tomorrow morning and have another longer test. For the test today I had to drink sugar water and then test my blood sugar after an hour. Since I failed, they will give me a higher concentration of sugar water and test my blood sugar every hour for three hours. So, I get to camp out at the doctor's office for 3+ hours tomorrow and get my finger panifully pricked. Oh goody.

Robert starts work tomorrow (oh to see the scared 1L's and remember what it was like). We move Friday and start school Monday. So glad it is the last year of law school for us. Oh the plus side, the baby is kicking a ton and I feel him move all the time.